This post, which grew out of a discussion with Cernig at The Newshoggers, is important because Cheryl Rofer brings professional experience in nuclear arms issues to the table. She also identifies serious weaknesses in the analytical approach used by the authors of the white paper. I will have further commentary about the state of American nuclear deterrence in a later post.

Dr. Nexon critiques both Ivo Daalder's and Robert Kagan's "Concert of Democracies" opinion-editorial and the bitter Left-blogospheric reaction it incurred, by laying out a liberal case for a democratic club ( note to self: I should critique this as well).

The fact that this case has to be laid out at all - and probably is regarded as counterintuitive by Leftist bloggers, if not openly scorned - demonstrates how far the American left has wandered away from the values of traditional American liberalism as expounded by people like Adlai Stevenson or Franklin Roosevelt ( how would the left blogosphere have greeted the Atlantic Charter ?).

I have not followed the GOP race with much attention to detail but Rick has and he knows his inside baseball. Laboring under an incumbent president of their own party, far from election day, makes it difficult for the Republican candidates to get the same media splash as their Democratic counterparts. Or money, for that matter.

Just a small comment on the origin of that post. Our conversation over at the Newshoggers did indeed play into some of the things I said. But at that time, I already had the white paper in (electronic) hand, having received it from our mutual friend, the Armchair Generalist.

One of the things I was impressed with in our dialog was the number of ways we agreed. I think that a rational US nuclear policy would find support on both sides of the political aisle and could help to rebuild a political center.

Yes, I think there's a lot of room for common ground here. A nuclear force constituted and primed with a doctrine for a foe that no longer exists is not going to provide America or its allies with the kind of security we seek.